Governance & Guardrails
TalkOps embeds governance, security controls, and intelligent guardrails at every layer for safe, compliant, and auditable operations.
The GAAP Model​
TalkOps governance rests on four pillars:
| Pillar | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Guardrails | What agents MUST NOT do |
| Access Control | What agents ARE ALLOWED to do |
| Approval | Where humans make decisions |
| Audit | Complete traceability |
Guardrails: Multi-Layer Safety​
Guardrails operate across four layers:
| Layer | Function | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Technical | Runtime limits | Max 5 instances, 30min timeout |
| Policy | Organizational rules | Encryption required, region restrictions |
| Behavioral | Agent reasoning constraints | "Never delete without approval" |
| Content | Output safety | Prevent harmful or biased outputs |
Access Control​
Role Hierarchy​
| Role | Scope |
|---|---|
| Viewer | Read status, dashboards |
| Developer | Deploy to dev/staging |
| Operator | Non-prod infrastructure |
| Admin | Production, approvals |
| Super Admin | RBAC, system config |
A2A Protocol Security​
Agents communicate via A2A with:
- OAuth 2.0 / mTLS authentication
- Fine-grained capability scopes
- Short-lived JWT tokens (15 min)
- Delegated permissions between agents
Human-in-the-Loop: Three Approval Modes​
TalkOps uses confidence-based routing to maintain oversight without bottlenecks:
| Mode | When Used | Latency |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-Approve | Low-risk, high-confidence (95%+), reversible | Immediate |
| Expedited | Medium-risk, production with rollback (70-95%) | ~5 min SLA |
| Formal | High-risk, destructive, multi-team impact (below 70%) | Committee review |
Approval Flow​
Policy Enforcement​
Pre-Deployment​
Checked before any execution:
- Cost limits and quotas
- Security requirements (encryption, VPC)
- Naming conventions and tagging
- Region/compliance restrictions
Post-Deployment​
Continuous monitoring for:
- Configuration drift
- Compliance status changes
- Security posture changes
Audit Trail​
Every operation creates an immutable log:
{
"audit_id": "audit-abc123",
"operation": "provision_cluster",
"agent": "cloud-orchestration",
"user": "alice@company.com",
"approval": {
"mode": "expedited",
"approver": "bob@company.com"
},
"policy_check": "passed",
"result": "success"
}
Compliance exports: SOC 2, HIPAA, FedRAMP, ISO 27001
Error Handling​
| Scenario | Response |
|---|---|
| Agent failure | Fallback agent, retry with backoff |
| Approval timeout | Escalate to next approver |
| Policy violation | Block + show remediation path |
| Deployment failure | Automatic rollback |